Sunday

Beautiful sunny day, but it's windy.  So what else is new?

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Mother's Day!  Tracy called, and Barrie is fixing a ham dinner.

On Mother's day, I can't help but think back to when my girls were little.  I have more pictures of Barrie, because I had good cameras.  When Tracy was little, I think I used a little Kodak Instamatic.

 

 

Here is Tracy on the front porch of the house we lived in on the ranch at Ragged Mountain, Colorado.

 

Barrie, riding home in the Jeep after a hard day of arrowhead hunting and photography.

 

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Calvin's Dad attempts to instill some sportsmanship in Calvin.

Friday

I know we got a smattering of rain last night, because there was rain on the window pane of my bathroom.  It wasn't much, not even enough to leave any puddles on the ground.  Now that it's warmed up, you can almost hear the grass growing.  It's getting green here, fast!

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This is what I got from Tracy yesterday for Mother's Day.  The shoots are already about four inches long, and they're pale yellow.  I'm sure they will green up fast.  I love things like this.  Thank you dear daughter Tracy.

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Kasey worked on my computer last night to make her Mom a Mother's Day card.

 

 



She did all the typing herself, and spelled the words on her own too. When she typed the word "other", she asked me if she should use "r" or "er".  And after she typed her name, she said "Uh oh, I used all capital letters -- oh well, I like it that way."  So that's the way it is.

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Poor Calvin.  But we all expected this, didn't we?

Thursday

A few clouds are moving in.  Maybe we'll get some rain this afternoon.

Black Birds are crowding the feeder.  Ever since watching the Stephen King movie "The Stand", I've not liked big black birds looking in my window at me.

I have a loaf of raisin bread in the oven and a load of clothes in the dryer.  Never mind that I'm still in my pajama tops and my bed's not made.'

Barrie did a super job cleaning and decluttering downstairs yesterday.  I 'll probably be in trouble for leaving some dirty dishes in the sink.  Or put anything where the pile for the Food Basket used to be.

 The book "Ashen Winter" ends with this:  "We would fight together to make a place in this disaster-hewn world - a place where  we could live in peace.

     Or die trying."

In case you didn't know about it, this is the second book in a series of three about how a small group of people in the Midwest attempt to survive after the volcano under Yellowstone blew.  Me, I'm glad I'm right here practically on top of it and will not have any struggles or hardships if it does blow!

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Calvin's traffic poster is finished, and he shares it at school.  He seems a little overconfident to me.

 

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 P.S.  Kat scored again, and another mouse bit the dust.

 

 

 



 



Wednesday

Beautiful day so far.  So spring-like!  No wind, and it is 60° at noon.

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 This is what was hanging on the front porch when I got home today --  about thirty clean dog harnesses, fresh out of the washing machine.  They look so pretty!  The white strips are reflective tape, for running at night.

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Lenore is back from her trip, and it was good to see her at art group today.  Sue, the cook at Rendezvous Pointe, felt sorry for us because Vicky wasn't here to feed us, and she baked some goodies.  And Beth made popcorn.  I came home full.

 

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Dissent in the ranks of the poster contest crew. 

 

 

Kasey was playing outside yesterday afternoon.  She noticed me taking her picture from the window, so she grabbed Maddy and held her to make sure she got in the picture too.

 









Tuesday

I posted something about singing the national anthem a couple days ago, and Roger thought Rosanne was the woman who angered people with her rendition.  Well, she did, but that is her job, to be offensive.  The woman I was thinking about is  Christina Aguilera, who sang the national anthem at the 2011 Super Bowl  Following is just part of an editorial  about her performance:

 

So, with all the kindness I can muster, I give this one piece of advice to the next pop star who is asked to sing our national anthem at a sporting event: save the vocal gymnastics and the physical gyrations for your concerts. Just sing this song the way you were taught to sing it in kindergarten: straight up, no styling. Sing it with the constant awareness that there are soldiers, sailors, airmen and marines watching you from bases and outposts all over the world. Don't make them cringe with your self-centered ego gratification.

 

There is a YouTube video on the Internet if you have the urge to  hear her.  I didn't know it at the time, but it seems she flubbed the lyrics too.

National Anthem

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Think about your friends.  This is pretty much true!

 

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I spent about an hour yesterday on "chat" with Century Tel technical support, we were cut off before my problem with their stupid email was solved, and I'm wondering if I should try again today. 

 

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Blackbirds and magpies are at the bird feeder.  Don't know why the magpie has suddenly discovered the feeder. 

 

 

 The safety poster contest continues.  My artist friends will appreciate this.



Sunday

Great horse race yesterday.  I found that I ended up picking my favorite because of his owner.  The horse Normandy Invader is owned by Rick Porter, a history buff, who has a special interest in WWII.  He brought four WWII veterans who were involved in the Normandy Invasion  to the Kentucky Derby as his guests.  The old guys were having a great time and placing bets at the track.  He did place third, but it would have been so neat if he had won.

A bit of trivia from the race - something I've never given any thought to.  When they run a muddy track, like it was yesterday, the jockeys wear several pairs of goggles, rigged together some way so they can pull one down to hang around their neck, and have a clean pair.  I don't know how many goggles they go through, but I was able to find one photo that clearly showed a very muddy jockey with goggles hanging down around his neck. 

I don't remember the event - a Super Bowl game, maybe, and the woman who sang The Star Spangled Banner made such a fool of herself and did a terrible job with the song.  She got a lot of flack over it.  Yesterday, at Churchill Downs, Martina McBride did a beautiful job.  Thank you.

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Another mouse decided to check our the house last night - and won't be able to tell his friends about it.

 

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I love these birds!

 

And Calvin is still working on his safety poster.

Saturday - Derby Day

I'm watching hockey on TV to be sure I don't miss any of the Kentucky Derby preliminaries.  I think I would really like hockey if I started to follow it and learned more about the game. 

I won't pick my Derby favorite until after I've watched the horses, watched the owner's interview, etc.  I'm not qualified, and I'm not wearing my fancy hat and I don't have a Mint Julep in my hand.  Can't help but root for the girl jockey, though.

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When I opened my window to fill the bird feeder yesterday, a pair of doves flew up from the ground under the feeder.  I didn't even have any doves last year, and I hope this pair stays for the summer.  When I had doves before, I think they were Rock Doves.  This is definitely a Mourning Dove.  What a pretty bird!

 

And while I was photographing the dove, this is what was hiding out in the brush below the tree.  I got a very good look at this cat yesterday, and there is nothing wrong with his tail.  And he is shedding off nicely.  He/she is probably catching lots of mice around my house, but I sure don't want him bothering the birds. 

 





Friday

Blogger has to be the worst publishing program ever invented.  Yesterday it would not accept the ALT keyboard symbols, like degrees or cents.  Today it is working perfectly - -   ° ¢ 

Also, I had to open Firefox and use it to upload graphics.  Today I am able to do it through Internet Explorer.

 

Think about it.  Do you do this? 

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Crossfire, the feed store that opened in front of my house not long ago has moved out.  They have moved to the other side of town, and are now on West Pine.  Didn't seem like they were here very long.  I wonder what will become of the building now?

 

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I've finished the last few tins of spice from the cupboard - put some back, and threw some away.  Now I've started on the files from my little file cabinet.  I don't think I need to store old power bills, or manuals  for old appliances I no longer have.

 

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Fonts and Symbols

Some time ago, there was a discussion about how to make the degree symbol on a computer.  It is made by holding the ALT key down and typing 0176.  Try it, it works.    Today, someone posted a photo on Facebook showing all the symbols you can make on the keyboard with the ALT key.  The symbol for cents and the degree symbol would both be useful to remember, although Blogger gets flaky and often kicks you off the page. 

Yesterday Conley brought a poster that was lettered in beautiful calligraphy.  We decided it must have been done on a computer.  This morning, just for fun, I decided to check out my fonts folder and see just what kind of calligraphy fonts I had installed.  Here are some of them:



And I found this font on the list, called "Mini Pics Red Rock".  Not sure what I would ever use it for, but I love the little characters.  They are like little petroglyphs.

I have over 300 fonts installed on my computer, which is ridiculous.  I'm sure the majority of them could be deleted, but I'm not short of space on my hard drive, so I don't bother.  I'm not sure where they all came from.  I think everything that is installed on your computer comes with its own fonts, and just automatically get installed.

Wednesday

I'm sitting here watching it snow and wondering which drawing to work on.  I have three started, and they are all kind of at the "stuck" stage.  I worked on a pencil drawing of a moose at art group this morning.

There were only four of us at art group.  The snow birds should be returning shortly. 

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This describes my method of doing laundry perfectly.  I used to put it on the bed,  but now I leave it in the basket.  Makes the bed easier to make.  I also have another basket where I throw the dirty clothes.